Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

The idea here is to find an efficient way to change out small parts of a model such as frag, krak, melta charges, halo's and other such optional equipment. Similar in a way as to how you magnetize troops and vehicles to allow interchangeable parts. But we all know magnets would much too large to be put on these small pieces of wargear. Yet, I want to find a way to be able to do this. My idea's so far.

Tape: speaks for itself, I was thinking double sided tape. I have thought about this and it seems to be poorest option, because paint might peel off over time.
Sticky Putty: better than tape, but paint might still peel off over time.
Paperclip and hook: stick a paperclip into the waist of a model and put tiny hooks on your wargear options.

Anyone ever tried to make interchangeable wargear before? Let me know about your experiences or idea's, or both. Thanks.

Would help if you told us exactly what HQ from what army you're looking to make interchangeable wargear for.
Frak, krak and iron halos, as you've mentioned, are standard equipment that all Space Marine Captains have, with no option to remove or anything. The rest is insignificant enough that it doesnt really matter if it is on the model or not.

However, to help you with ideas, my personal favourite is to have them on seperate tokens/bases from the model itself, like the ammo runts for Ork nobs and warbosses. When I want my Ork Warboss to have the Attack squig upgrade, I just have a model of a squig on a seperate base to accompany him. It's purely cosmetic, and when it gets in the way, it is promptly moved out of the way.

Not just HQ, all troops. And obviously the specific equipment I mentioned are SM wargear. But other armies have these tiny bits too, and it would be neat to be able to be able to change up the equipment for each and every model for each and every specific battle. As it is, there is usually not enough room on a model to glue on all those tiny bits, and I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a solution to that so we won't have to change to another model should we require another model to satisfy the WYSIWYG rule. Not only that, if we can find a solution, we wouldn't need to build extra models just so we have every available weapon/wargear combinations and options out there.

The way that I rock this is I drill a pinhole in the backside of the shoulderpad, and glue a short pin in the melta bomb\whatever. If it's equipped, I stick it in place, once it's expended I remove it, and if it was never equipped at all, I either put a different piece of flair* in it's place (like the sheathed swords the Scouts have, or a holstered gun or purity seal or what have you, also with a pin in it) or nothing at all; it's a tiny hole anyway and hard to see. If I were a Golden Demon level painter I might find a different method, but I'm not.

*It's important to remember that 15 pieces of flair really is the minimum, and do you really want the kind of marines that do the bare minimum? The Ultramarines don't set foot outside of their barracks unless they have 37 pieces of flair.

Why not just pin them?

Put a magnet in the model in the area you want to mount the wargear. Put a small pin on the wargear (or any piece of ferrous metal). Assuming the wargear is plastic, it'll hold fine and won't mar the paint (or leave visible holes)

Same as above. There is almost always room for a magnet on the model itself. I then use a small piece of a staple on the equipment itself.